Militants kill 270 in anti-regime raid on Syria gas field
Saudi Gazette - 20 July, 2014
http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=709861&news_type=Top&lang=en

Militants have killed 270 Syrian regime fighters, civilian security guards
and staff since seizing a gas field in Homs province, most of whom were
executed, a monitoring group said on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that a woman accused
of adultery was stoned to death by the Islamic State (IS) in the northern
city of Raqa, in the second such case in as many days.

The Observatory described Thursday’s takeover of the Shaar field as “the
biggest” anti-regime operation by the IS since the militant group rose to
prominence last year among rebel groups in the Syrian conflict.

The watchdog said it had documented “the death of 270 people killed in the
fighting or executed” since the takeover of the field in central Syria.

“A large majority of the men killed were executed at gunpoint after being
taken prisoner following the takeover of the camp,” said Observatory
director Rami Abdel Rahman.

“Eleven of the dead were civilian employees, while the rest were security
guards and National Defense Forces members,” he added.

On Saturday, regime forces, a day after launching a counter-attack, had
“re-taken large areas of Shaar,” according to Abdel Rahman. “Fighting is
continuing around the gas field.” The counter-attack had left at least 40 IS
militants dead, while 11 soldiers had been killed and 10 others who were
injured had been taken to hospital in Homs, said the Observatory, which
relies for its information on a network of activists and medics on the
ground. The fate of nearly 100 people who worked at the site remained
unknown, according to earlier figures released by the Observatory. — AFP